How to reinstall a BIOS on T43

[scr71822]

I have a T43 with the latest BIOS 1.29. I'd like to reinstall it and the EC 1.05. What is the key combination to force it to reinstall. I'm having a 0200 Fixed Disk Error 7 I'm trying to troublshoot. Throws the error even with out the disk in and why does it say '7'??

[rkawakami]

This may help: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=88293

[scr71822]

Yes i saw that initially it did not work, I had to put everything back in the way it was then replce the CDRW and then it cleared the problem, still want to know how to reflash the bios. I think you have to press a certain key combination. At least that;s the was it was for 4H raid controllers.

[RealBlackStuff]

This may help: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Talk:BIOS ... d_T22_BIOS

[rkawakami]

If you do decide to "update" your system you need to be careful about which BIOS or EC update you apply. There's two different model TYPES for the T43; 18xx or 26xx

18xx: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59380 (BIOS update via diskette)
18xx: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59440 (EC update via diskette)

26xx: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59097 (BIOS update via diskette)
26xx: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59121 (EC update via diskette)

I wholeheartedly recommend doing any BIOS or EC update using a diskette, even if your hard drive is accessible. You will need a freshly charged battery and an AC adapter connected to the system. This is to prevent a power loss during the update from bricking your system. These are the general instructions when updating (going from an older version to a newer one). In your case, you can try downgrading to an older version and then applying the current version. In those links I supplied above, there's a table near the end of each page which lists all of the previous versions and has links to download those files. But first, check the release notes (the "README" file) for the BIOS update and see what the relationship is between the BIOS and EC versions. In your case with the T43, the last several BIOS updates can be used with EC 1.04. You could then download BIOS 1.28 (one back), flash the system, then re-flash with BIOS 1.29.

I just did this to a T23 system. I updated it to BIOS 1.20; it was at 1.17. I then applied the EC 1.06a update (from 1.05). I then downgraded to BIOS 1.18. I did not think that I needed to downgrade the EC because BIOS 1.17 was designed to work with EC 1.06a. The BIOS update program DID recognize that I was going backward and displayed a warning about it and had me confirm that's what I wanted to do.

Follow all of the prompts, pressing the Y or Enter key when told to do so. The system should shut down by itself; do NOT turn off power manually*. You may get a loud "beep" during the update. This is normal. Be aware that fooling around with the BIOS and EC updates is not something that should be taken lightly (my opinion). There is a finite chance that something will go wrong and you'll end up in a worse situation then what you started with.

*I have to say here that my T23 did NOT turn off automatically when I downgraded to BIOS 1.18. I let it sit for about three minutes past the point in which it should have turned off, during which time the CPU fan started spinning and ejecting hot air. I decided to take a chance and ignore my own advice and manually powered off the system. It booted back up without any problems and accepted the BIOS 1.20 update.

[ajkula66]

Two things here...

Make no mistake, your Southbridge is on its way out.

Secondly, there's no key combination that re-flashes the BIOS on ThinkPads.

Good luck.

[scr71822]

I'll keep an eye on it and see if it needs a reball.

[scr71822]

I went ahead and purchased anew southbridge chip and had Dale install it for me, so far no more errors.

[RealBlackStuff]

All you would have needed was a reballing of the SB chip, not a new SB chip as well!

[scr71822]

All you would have needed was a reballing of the SB chip, not a new SB chip as well!

I was going to be using the laptop for work and wanted to make sure also I was interested to see the spare chip as I might buy more from this vendor. I didn't want to reball and then find out the chip was bad.